Last Updated on July 21, 2024 by Kittredge Cherry
Marcella Althaus-Reid was a queer theologian who sparked controversy with books such as “Indecent Theology” and “The Queer God.” Born and raised in Argentina, she became the first woman appointed to a chair in the School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 2006. She held that post when she died on Feb. 20, 2009 at age 56.
Her reputation continues to grow with the release of new books based on her work, such as “Queer and Indecent: An Introduction to the Theology of Marcella Althaus Reid” by Thia Cooper (March 2021) and “The Indecent Theologies of Marcella Althaus-Reid: Voices from Asia and Latin America,” edited by Lisa Isherwood and Hugo Córdova Quero (2021).
Marcella María de los Angeles Althaus-Reid was born on May 11, 1952, in the central Argentine city of Rosario. Baptized as a Roman Catholic, she and grew up in Buenos Aires. She trained for ministry in the Methodist Church of Argentina and earned her first theological degree in 1986 from ISEDET (Instituto Superior Evangelico de Estudios Teologicos). ISEDET is Latin America’s world-renowned center for studying liberation theology, which emphasizes God’s “preferential option for the poor.” There she became friends with fellow student Roberto Gonzalez, who founded Argentina’s first LGBTQ-affirming church Iglesias de la Comunidad Metropolitana in Buenos Aires in 1987.
She gained recognition for working on social and community projects in the slums of Buenos Aires. As she continued her studies, Althaus-Reid applied the principles of liberation theology to women and sexual minorities, including LGBTQ people. Continuing her studies, she completed a PhD in 1994 from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland
Marcella Althaus-Reid said, “All theology is sexual theology”
Her first book, “Indecent Theology
She wakes up the world with statements such as, “All theology is sexual theology.” Her originality and flashes of insight are expressed in the following quotation from her book “The Queer God”:
“Our task and our joy is to find or simply recognise God sitting amongst us, at any time, in any gay bar or in the home of a camp friend who decorates her living room as a chapel and doesn’t leave her rosary at home when going to a salsa bar.”
According to her obituary in the Herald Scotland, Althaus-Reid was a member of Moderator Nancy Wilson’s advisory theological team in Metropolitan Community Churches and felt at home in MCC’s Edinburgh congregation, although she was formally a member of the Quakers and the Church of Scotland.
Her writing style is often dense and her books continue to be controversial, even among LGBTQ people of faith. But nobody denies that Althaus-Reid took risks to raise important issues based on queer life and spirituality.
Her theology is summed up well by Hugo Córdova Quero, a scholar who worked with her personally. He wrote a reflection about her for the Jesus in Love Blog on the fifth anniversary of her death. Quero states:
“An embodied spirituality must also be sexual. Otherwise, salvation is not completely attainable. Marcella thus guides us towards a spirituality which does not force us to sever our sexuality. On the contrary, she leads us to honor it as a path to holiness. Her indecent theology is a truly queer theology that has opened the doors of the closets of traditions and prejudices and prophetically calls us out to walk towards liberation.”
Her work connects with other queer mujerista or Latina liberation theologians such as Chicana lesbian feminist Gloria Anzaldúa.
Portrait honors Marcella Althaus-Reid
A portrait of Althaus-Reid (at the top of this post) was put on display at New College School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland in 2016. The portrait is by David Martin, a Scottish artist born in 1975 who teaches at Leith School of Art. It is a rare portrait focusing on the intellectual power of a woman. In the painting Althaus-Reid smiles seriously next to a chalkboard and a wall papered with pictures representing various parts of her life and theology.
It was dedicated in 2016 at a Scottish university classroom renamed in her honor. The Althaus-Reid Room, formerly known as Room 1.07, was dedicated on Sept. 15, 2016 at New College School of Divinity at the University of Edinburgh.
In 2017 the painting was mounted in the Rainy Hall, a communal dining room that is the social hub for students and faculty of the divinity school. The elegant Gothic revival room features various portraits, fancy chandeliers, ornate gilding, and wood paneling adorned with coats of arms.
Key concepts from Althaus-Reid’s theology are handwritten in chalk on the blackboard in the painting: otherness, difference, decency, indecency, freedom, undressing and sexual ethics. The images on the wall behind her include the virgin of Guadalupe, a portrait of socialist philosopher Karl Marx, an antique map of South America, a snapshot of a couple dancing the Argentine ballroom dance known as the tango, and a poster for an Argentine rock band.
A photo of a woman in high boots may be a reference to the 2011 book “Dancing Theology in Fetish Boots: Essays in Honour of Marcella Althaus Reid,” edited by Lisa Isherwood and Mark D. Jordan.
Books by Marcella Althaus-Reid
Many of her books are available in both Spanish and English.
Indecent Theology: Theological Perversions in Sex, Gender and Politics
From Feminist Theology to Indecent Theology
Liberation Theology and Sexuality
La teología indecente: Perversiones teológicas en sexo, género y política.
Books about Marcella Althaus-Reid
“After Method: Queer Grace, Conceptual Design, and the Possibility of Theology” by Hanna Reichel.
Queer theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid is put into conversation with Karl Barth, the most important theologian of the 20th century in this scholarly yet lively analysis based on queer experience. The book finds queer grace by going beyond both the systematic (Barth) and constructive (Althaus-Reid) methods, building a new theology to better address reality. Educated in Germany, the author is associate professor of Reformed theology at Princeton Theological Seminary. They are an internationally recognized Barth scholar. “ ‘After Method’ assumes the impossibility of doing theology right–and moves beyond it,” promises its publisher, Westminster John Knox Press.
“Queer and Indecent: An Introduction to the Theology of Marcella Althaus Reid” by Thia Cooper (SCM Press, March 2021).
“The Indecent Theologies of Marcella Althaus-Reid: Voices from Asia and Latin America,” edited by Lisa Isherwood and Hugo Córdova Quero (Routledge, 2021).
Indecent Theologians: Marcella Althaus-Reid and the Next Generation of Postcolonial Activists,” edited by Nicolas Panotto (2016).
Diverse contributors build on her subversive landmark book “Indecent Theology.” They come from the USA, Europe and a wide variety of Latin American countries. They include Susannah Cornwall, Leopoldo Cervantes-Ortiz, Adrian Emmanuel Hernandez-Acosta, Jorge Aquino, Gabriela González Ortuño, Nicolás Panotto, Emilce Cuda, Claudio Carvalhaes, Robyn Henderson-Espinoza and Oscar Cabrera. Panotto is an Argentinean theologian from the IU ISEDET (Buenos Aires). It is included on Q Spirit’s list of the top 35 LGBTQ Christian books of 2016.
Dancing theology in fetish boots: Essays in honour of Marcella Althaus Reid
Marcella Althaus-Reid wrote the chapter on Mark’s gospel in “The Queer Bible Commentary,” edited by Deryn Guest, Robert Goss, Mona West and Thomas Bohache.
Links related to Marcella Althaus-Reid
“Walking Indecently with Marcella Althaus-Reid: Doing Dissident and Liberative Theologies from the South” by Anderson Fabian Santos Meza (Religions journal, February 2023)
Queer theologian Marcella Althaus-Reid honored in new portrait (Jesus in Love)
Remembering Marcella Althaus-Reid, “Indecent theologian” (Queer Saints and Martyrs – And Others)
“En La Caminata: Remembering Marcella Althaus-Reid” by Alejandro Escalante (Indecent Theology blog)
Oración al Cristo del Arco Iris (Rainbow Christ Prayer in Spanish)
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Top image credit:
Portrait of Marcella Althaus-Reid by David Martin (Wikimedia Commons)
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This post is part of the LGBTQ Saints series by Kittredge Cherry. Traditional and alternative saints, people in the Bible, LGBTQ martyrs, authors, theologians, religious leaders, artists, deities and other figures of special interest to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people and our allies are covered.
This article was originally published on Q Spirit in February 2017, was expanded with new material over time, and was most recently updated on May 16, 2024.
Copyright © Kittredge Cherry. All rights reserved.
Qspirit.net presents the Jesus in Love Blog on LGBTQ spirituality.
Dear Kitteredge Cherry, I am a Gay Australian Roman Catholic social justice theologian, of Portuguese-Indian extraction, with a keen interest in the diverse non-binarial sexualities that have long been part of the South Asian cultural contribution to an appreciation of the links between culture, theology and gender. For me Althaus-Reid’s liberation theology work provides an indispensable link to the discourse of a largely missing theology, driven underground by dominant Christian narratives on human sexuality that have manifestly employed hegemonic Christian and generally Western theologies to condemn and occlude the experiences of gender-diverse people as Children of God. In retirement I occasionally teach a course in social ethics to Anglican ordinands in Brisbane, Qld. The Dean of Studies at our College of St Francis, Dr Peter Kline, is shortly to lead a discussion at our Anglican cathedral on Marcella and her inestimable work.
Althaus-Reid in your theology. It is especially important to have South Asian perspectives on her work. I’m glad to hear that you are still teaching in Australia. You may be especially interested in the new book, “The Indecent Theologies of Marcella Althaus-Reid: Voices from Asia and Latin America.”
I also invite you (and everyone who reads this comment) to a sign up for a free subscription to my monthly Q Spirit e-newsletter on LGBTQ spirituality and the arts. Please use the “sign up for newsletter” box on this info page: https://qspirit.net/newsletter/
Dear Sister Kittredge Cherry, As a “permanent student” since 1948 (born in 1929), I have been interested in Feminist Theology for four decades, but didn’t come across Marcella Althaus-Reid till just a few years ago – and I
feel extremely grateful for your way of representing her. (I studied with
Rudolf Bultmann at Marburg and with Paul Tillich at Union Seminary, NYC, so you can imagine what my pilgrimage looks like. Yours most gratefully, Thomas C. Dell George.
Thank you for introducing yourself and leaving such a thoughtful comment. I’m glad that my blog is enhancing your understanding of feminist theology.
Because of your background, you may be interested in my article about another German theologian, who studied at Union Seminary before you:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Eberhard Bethge: Anti-Nazi theologians and soulmates